Beside Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer, 1 Corinthians 13 represents on of the most well known and loved passages in all of the Bible. Perhaps it is the most cherished passage in all of the Apostle Paul’s writings. And while the word love is mentioned ten times in this one chapter, you’ll not find one command in the entire chapter. Paul could have written about the importance of love in just one or two sentences. Yet, he slows the entire letter to a near stop in order to expand on love. This lofty literary accomplishment is best known from weddings. Yet, 1 Corinthians 13 is not about weddings though it is fine to repeat these words in that setting. 1 Corinthians 13 is primarily about living in a Christian community, or a church. It is the Bible’s way to teach Christians how to relate to one another in a together kind of way.
Today’s Scripture
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I
have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).
1 Corinthians 13 shows how to relate to one another as it does two things simultaneously. First, this passage calls us to love one another in a way that brings attention to God Himself. Second, this passage calls on us to emulate Christ love by putting others in front of ourselves.
Love and Christianity
Christ has the corner on love. The cross of Christ has been the defining act of love for nearly two millennia. Central to Christianity is the call to love. Jesus said that love for one another is the badge for Christians: “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).
Beside Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer, 1 Corinthians 13 represents on of the most well known and loved passages in all of the Bible. Perhaps it is the most cherished passage in all of the Apostle Paul’s writings. And while the word love is mentioned ten times in this one chapter, you’ll not find one command in the entire chapter Paul could have written about the importance of love in just one or two sentences.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
Paul says it as well: “And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more…” (Philippians 1:9).
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love…” (Ephesians 3:17).
Loving other people before yourself is one distinctive trait of Christians. Love is so central to Christianity that you could substitute Jesus’ name for love in verses 4-7: “Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. HE does not insist on its own way; HE is not irritable or resentful; HE does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Again, love is central to Christianity. I want you to walk away knowing today that, “Love Alone Counts.” For love is the power of the age to come that has invaded our day. Love has broken into the present day from its home in heaven.
1. A More Excellent Way
While this passage is a favorite at weddings, it was originally written as a rebuke to a church in the ancient Roman Empire: the church at Corinth.
When the first people who received this letter read it, they didn’t say, “That’s nice,” as we do in weddings today. It just sort of soothes us today. Instead, it was a bombshell. It doesn’t read that way to our modern ears. And the reason it doesn’t read this way, is because we don’t see the connections between this chapter and the rest of the book. You can perhaps see the link if you move your eyes just above chapter thirteen to the end of chapter twelve. It’s here that we find the words: “But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).
Verse 31 is a transitional verse on the topic of people seeking the greatest spiritual gifts. We’ll see some of these gifts in just a moment. For now, Spiritual gifts are tools God gives to His church in order for the church to function. He gives unique gifts and He scatters the gifts throughout the body of Christ so everyone has a part in the church. These spiritual gifts could be skills such as speaking skills or knowledge (which is the two mentioned here) but they could vary to whatever the church needs. What’s important now to note, is that the people inside this new church were zealously concerned about the greatest gifts for themselves.
Paul will turn the word “greatest” gifts around to show them what is truly great. You see this is a part of a letter written to a church in the ancient city of Corinth. And it was a rebuke to this new church. Let me show why this chapter is a bombshell.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Now if you read the entire letter to the Corinthians closely, you’ll see the same words in this chapter have already been used. If you were to look over at chapter three, Paul tells them they are “jealous” (1 Corinthians 3:3). Yet, “love does not envy.” If you were to look over at chapter four and chapter eight, Paul calls this group “puffed up” (1 Corinthians 4:6; 8:1) which is the same word used in verse four where you see the word “arrogant.”
If chapter ten he calls them self-seeking (1 Corinthians 10:24, 33) where he says love “does not insist on its own way” (1 Corinthians 13:5). If chapter seven he calls them rude (1 Corinthians 7:36) and here in our chapter he tells us love is the opposite of “rude.” (1 Corinthians 13:5).
The Corinth church excelled at jealously, division, and fighting, pride, and moral lapses. Paul defines love by the very things lacking in the Corinthian believers. Every word of this chapter was chosen with a particular situation in Corinth in mind.
Imagine if I went to your home and defined love by the things I see that is missing in your home. That’s how 1 Corinthians 13 functions for the new church in Corinth. The Corinthian Church had remarkable tendency to congratulate itself. They were gifted people who had settled into Corinth because they wanted to make a name for themselves. The city itself lent itself toward such a behavior. Corinth was a natural crossroad for land and sea travel. Cenchreae was six miles to east and opened ships to Asia. Lechaeum was two miles to the north and opened ships to Italy. A four-mile rock-cut track connected the two ports. This four-mile land bridge saved sailors around 200 miles of sailing around the cape. Boats would be removed and placed on rollers to cross the isthmus. In additional, it prevented them from experiencing potential storms as they traveled around the cape of Greece was dangerous in the winter. There was a saying among sailors: “Let him that would sail around Malea make his will first.”
Corinth’s Wealth
Because Corinth was the master of two harbors, the town was wealthy. The town offered incredible financial opportunity to the people of the first century. Because the town was relatively young, there was no entrenched aristocracy. Settlers were not fixed in their allotted position on the social scale. They had a real opportunity to move up in social rank by acquiring wealth and buying friendships. Many freed slaves were working to forge a new life in Corinth. Think of Corinth in terms of a boom-town in the American West more than a century ago. The prospect of wealth elicits numerous people to come, yet many leave with their hopes dashed. The prospect of money attracts people like dead meat attracts flies. And Corinth quickly experienced a great influx of people from both West and East. As one person said of Corinth, only “the tough survived there.” This was a competitive town where the “Big Man” ruled.
The town was highly materialistic. One writer described why he didn’t go to Corinth about 100 years after Paul’s time there: “I learned a short time the nauseating behavior of the rich and the misery of the poor.” The majority of Corinth’s population was on the lower end of economic ladder. But they were eager to climb the ladder. Again, Every word of this chapter was chosen with a particular situation in Corinth in mind. And so Paul drops a bombshell on them in 1 Corinthians 13 – this is what love is.
2. I Am Nothing
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Again, Paul wants us to strive after higher things. Things that matter… Things that are eternal. In order to change the object of our desire, Paul talks about himself. He plays the “what if” game with his life as a model. He talks about three possible gifts from God. What if I had the ability to speak “in the tongues of men and of angels” (1 Corinthians 13:1). What if I had “prophetic powers” (1 Corinthians 13:2). Third, what if I had “all faith” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Each of these three things would have given Paul a high status in the church of Corinth. And he is reversing the table. What you think gives you high status, is not as important as you think. What you believe to be seemingly impressive gifts turn out to be of no value whatsoever.
Notice also in these first three verses, Paul writes in three steps. And each step heightens his argument. He does this three-step thing in each of the first three verses. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).
The first step in verse one, “If I speak in the tongues of men…” See also the second step, “If I speak in the tongues … of angels…” And now the third step, “but have not love.”
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2). He actually combines two different types of gifts in verse two. First step in verse two, “And if I have prophetic powers…” and “if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains.” Second step, “And if I … understand all mysteries and all knowledge...”
Third step, “but have not love.” “If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). First step in verse three, “If I give away all I have…” Second step, “…if I deliver up my body to be burned…” Third step, “…but have not love…”
Love is essential. Loveless tongues are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1). Loveless prophecy is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2). Loveless faith is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2b). Even loveless social action and martyrdom is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:3). Love is essential. The Bible wants you to aim to be a loving person. The Bible wants you to aim for a new brass ring. Because according to verse 7-8: “…endures all things. Love never ends…” (1 Corinthians 7b-8a). Love is essential and eternal.
“Love Alone Counts.”
For love is the power of the age to come that has invaded our day. Love has broken into the present day from its home in heaven. Love restrains you from a bitter spirit. Love is a sweet disposition of the soul. Love prevents fights and quarrels. Love causes you to be a peaceful person. Love is the ingredient of true saving faith. The only thing that counts for anything according to Galatians 5:6: “only faith working through love.”
(Galatians 5:6b). “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing
well” (James 2:8). Again, Love is essential.
And note carefully the person who does not have love. You see the effects of the person who does not have love three times in three verses.
In verse one, they are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” In verse two, without love, “I am nothing.”
And in verse three, without love, “I gain nothing.” Even if have all these gifts, I am nothing. The bombshell is you can have all these gifts and not be saved. Nothing refers to salvation. Without love you are not saved. When you are nothing before God, you are cast away from His presence.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’ (Matthew 7:21-23).
You can see how this would be a bombshell to the early Christians. You see many people pass themselves as Christians yet God doesn’t recognize them. It’s as if people have found the place where the police make their uniforms and any citizen can order a blue police uniform. Only it’s not the uniform that makes a policeman. And it’s not faith alone that makes a follower of Christ. It’s faith plus love for God and for others.
Light nearly always is accompanied by heat. Light and heat go together. Saving faith is light and it always brings heat with it, it always brings love. Light and heat go together as do faith and love. What looks to many as a highly spiritual person – someone who speaks in tongues… What looks to many as a highly spiritual person – someone who has the ability of prophecy… What looks to many as a highly spiritual person – someone who possesses tremendous faith… What looks to many as a highly spiritual person – someone who gives away a lot of their possessions to the poor… … is in reality nothing.
The same is true today. Without love, you will receive no praise from God. Without love, you will receive no reward from him. Your faith amounted to nothing. It is all light but no heat. You must be a loving person if you are a follower of Christ. The Spirit of God is a spirit of love. When the Spirit of God enters into the soul, love enters. The nature of the Holy Spirit is love.
“…God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5b). When the Holy Spirit communicates Himself, the hearts of Christ’s followers are filled with love.
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit” (1 John 4:12-13).
I want you to walk away knowing today that, “Love Alone Counts.” Love is Supreme. For love is the power of the age to come that has invaded our day. Love has broken into the present day from its home in heaven.
